Praying for bin Laden

Every day, in his private devotions and publicly at mass, the Roman Catholic priest has prayed for the international terrorist as a fellow human being and a fellow sinner. He has asked God to help the man accused of masterminding the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon -- and the deaths of more than 4,000 Americans -- to turn away from violence and destruction.

As Kruszynski sees it, he has no choice.

"Jesus couldn't have said it more clearly: `Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you,'" he explained, quoting a verse from the fifth chapter of Matthew's gospel. "As I look at him, I see myself too. We're all in need of God's grace. All our lives need to be changed and transformed."

It's an attitude that's sharply at odds with the lust for revenge that many Americans have felt toward bin Laden and the 9/11 terrorists.

Indeed, hatred for bin Laden has been equated with patriotism, witness T-shirts featuring the Al Qaeda chief on one side with the words "Wanted: Dead or Alive" and, on the other side, an American flag and the words "Proud to be an American."

Yet, in praying for the terrorist and his disciples, Kruszynski, the director of evangelization for the archdiocese of Chicago, hasn't been alone.

In interviews in recent days, as bin Laden was on the run from U.S. troops in Afghanistan, other local Christian leaders, including Cardinal Francis George, talked about the religious necessity of remembering the terrorist and other enemies in their prayers.

There's no question, said John M. Buchanan, senior pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church at 126 E. Chestnut St., that "it's distasteful to pray for Osama bin Laden or any enemy. But Jesus told us to do just that. You can oppose your enemy without demonizing them. They're God's children too."

Services at Buchanan's church routinely include a prayer for enemies. But, since Sept. 11, that prayer has taken on new import -- and a touch of controversy -- even though it doesn't mention bin Laden specifically.

"We've got identifiable enemies now, with a face and a name," said Buchanan, who is also the president of the foundation that publishes Christian Century magazine. "We've had some people express their objection to that [prayer]. They didn't think it was appropriate."

Over the past two months, Cardinal George said, he has prayed privately for bin Laden. Publicly, he has included the nation's enemies in his prayers without mentioning the terrorist by name, and has gotten no complaints.

"If somebody [complained], I would say to them, you have to pray for your own conversion as well because the Lord enjoins that kind of prayer. God loves everyone, including our enemies," he said. "So we have to rise to that without fudging the fact that they are our enemies, and that, in this case, what was done to us was very evil."

No forgiveness

Such thinking, however, isn't universally accepted by religious people. Jews, for example, take a much different approach, several rabbis said.

"The Jewish position, in the Talmud, is clear: If someone is trying to kill you, you have the responsibility to repel him and kill him first," said Rabbi Joseph Ozarowski, executive director of the Chicago Rabbinical Council. "The idea of forgiving one's enemy and turning the other cheek -- that's not part of our tradition."

Ozarowski said he knew of no local Jewish congregation that was praying for bin Laden. "As far as forgiveness, I would put [bin Laden] in the same category as Hitler," he said. "We don't pray for Hitler's soul."

At Congregation Sinai Congregation at 15 W. Delaware Pl., just a few blocks north of Holy Name Cathedral, Rabbi Michael Sternfield said he was startled when he learned that Christians were praying for the terrorist.

"If I were to offer a prayer like that in the synagogue, they'd think I just went over the deep end," he said. "It would not resonate for a second in a Jewish congregation. I can think of hundreds, maybe thousands, of causes more deserving of my prayers."

Sternfield said members of his temple ask God for peace, courage, solace and understanding. Prayers for bin Laden, he said, are out of the question.

"First, we don't wish him well," the rabbi said. "Second, what would we be praying for? Would I pray for him to be enlightened? I don't think that could happen at this point."

Cardinal George and other Christian leaders emphasized, however, that praying for bin Laden isn't an effort to excuse or forget what he's accused of having done.

Something we all share

"It's important to remember," Buchanan noted, "we're not talking about smiley, mushy sentiment. Martin Luther King Jr. said it's a good thing Jesus didn't tell us to like our enemies. You don't like them. You abhor what they've done."

George said, "It's not a question of feeling. It's a question of the truth that God loves everyone and enjoins us to pray for our enemies because he does love them. So, as you pray for them, hopefully there's a conversion of your own heart -- that, even though you turn in horror from what they did and you don't like them, you still pray for them, that God will save them and save us for our sins."

James M. Wall, a United Methodist minister and the Christian Century editor from 1972 through 1999, argued that the efforts of President George W. Bush and other U.S. officials to equate bin Laden and his terrorist ring with evil presents a skewed view.

"The problem with evil is it's found in everyone," Wall said. "To call him evil implies that I'm good. And that's wrong. We all have evil in us. You pray for bin Laden because he's one of God's children, and in the hope -- probably a futile hope -- that he will not continue to express his evilness in the evil ways as he has been doing."

Cardinal George recalled the oft-quoted phrase "There but for the grace of God go I" and said, "All of us have been cooperators in evil at some point in our lives, so there is a sense of being able to understand how someone can be taken by evil."

Yet, the cardinal also noted:

"There are people who are so steeped in evil -- Hitler, Mao Tse-tung, Josef Stalin -- that you could say that not only their actions are evil but they themselves, in some sense, have been taken over by evil. I don't know that we should say that publicly, but it's certainly an arguable thesis. Now I'm not saying [bin Laden] is in that category, although what he did was terribly, terribly evil, and we shouldn't forget that because, otherwise, we're not in touch with reality."

Like Christianity, Islam encourages its members to pray for their enemies to have a change of heart, said Asad Husain, president of the American Islamic College at 640 W. Irving Park Rd.

Bin Laden as an enemy

And bin Laden is seen as the enemy by American Muslims, he said, because of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. and because his message of violence is a perversion of Islamic teachings.

Nonetheless, Husain said he knew of no Chicago-area mosques that were praying publicly for bin Laden. "I'm sure it wouldn't look good," he said, noting that non-Muslims might think such prayers were for the terrorist's success.

Kruszynski, a Franciscan who lives with other priests of the religious order in the Edgewater neighborhood, said he has gotten no complaints when he has prayed for bin Laden by name at masses at St. Gertrude Church, 1420 W. Granville Ave., where he helps out on the weekend.

But he added, "I'm sure some people look at me and say, `Yeah, give me a break.' "

It's a reaction, he said, with which he can empathize.

"On a human level, it's understandable -- the rage, the anger," Kruszynski said. "Yet, there is another way to look at it -- at the faith level. We really need to bring God to bear. We don't have the same vision that God does. He sees us all as one. We don't."